Literary Lenses

Literary Theories

Critical Analyses and the Lenses through which we conduct them.

​Each one of these people has their own unique perspective through which they would view a work.

Literary Theories

Literary theories are the lenses and perspectives people developed to understand the variety of ways through which individuals interpret and engage with texts. While proponents of individual theories have a strong bias towards their chosen lens, in reality, most readers will use a variety of different lenses to interpret texts.

Criticism using Literary Theories

Criticism does not mean judgement. It means focused analysis and interpretation

• To create criticism, we use literary theories.

• Literary theories are not based on common thoughts or conjecture. They are systemized and supported by observable evidence.

• They are a perspective, or lens, through which we focus our attention to interpret deeper into a text.

• They let us pay attention to things we may not be aware of or missed.

Archetypal Criticism

• In literature and art, an archetype is a character, tradition, a story, an event, or an image that recurs in different works, in different cultures, and in different periods of time.

• It's looking for patterns across cultures

Represented by Little Red Riding Hood above, the archetype of Death and the Maiden is a story and an art motif that goes back even further. A young, unmarried woman is taken away or undergoes a trial against death. The story of Persephone and Hades is this archetype as well. So is "Where are you going, where have you been?"

Death and the Maiden

Represented here by Romeo and Juliet, this character archetype comprises two lovers forbidden to be together either by family, society, culture, or even space and time. Often ends in tragedy.

​​Star-Crossed Lovers

Feminist Criticism

• A feminist critic examines gender roles, and cultural, social, economic, and legal differences across genders.

• Elevates women's voices and achievements across history to the same level as contemporaries.

Marxist Criticism

• based on works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, especially the following:

  • Revealing the economic, class, and ideological determinants of an author through their writing

  • Examining the text's relationship to the social reality of the author's time and place.

• EX: A Christmas Carol is about a rich man learning moral values. Charles Dickens (author) deeply cared about the exploitation of workers and children by rich businesses, something very common during his time.

• Psychoanalytic theory examines literature as an expression of the personality, state of mind, feelings, and desires of its author

  • assumes that a work = an author's mental traits.

• Focuses on the author of the work or a character in his work. It helps the readers understand the motivations of the writer as well as the characters.

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Several aspects of this school of thought (psychoanalytical) have been debunked. Sigmund Freud did not base his research on facts or science. He would often correlate a work to an author's mental state.

Psychoanalytic and Psychological Criticism

Reader-Response Criticism

• Does not designate any one critical theory but focuses on the individual activity and experience of reading a work of literature.

• By this shift of perspective, a literary work is converted into an activity that goes on in a reader's mind. Features of the work itself-including narrator, plot, characters, style, and structure-are less important than the connection between a reader's experience and the text.

  • Personal example: I think the Grapes of Wrath is an extremely boring book with flat characters because my experience of reading the book was stressful and in a time crunch. I also had little context for the setting.

• Basically your personal experiences with engaging the text shapes your critical interpretation and analysis of it.

• Applying historical information and context about the time during which an author wrote to the work itself.

• History refers to the social, political, economic, cultural, and/or intellectual climate of the time.

• A work is shaped by the time period and culture it was created in

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New Historicism Criticism

• concentrates solely on the text, bringing nothing else to it. Looks at the work as a singular item.

• Investigates patterns built up and broken down within a text and uses them for interpretation

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Structuralism is used on state exams often.

Structuralism Criticism

Fill in the Blank

____ theory focuses on the representation of class struggle as well as the reinforcement of class distinction through literature.

Multiple Choice

Since criticism based on reader-response theory relies heavily on personal opinions and experiences, there can be many differing, but equally valid interpretations of the same text.

• True

• False

Fill in the Blank

------ examines the historical, political, social, and cultural events that influenced a literary text.

Multiple Choice

Who was influential in Psychoanalytic Theory?

• Mary Wollstonecraft

• Karl Marx

• Edgar Allan Poe

• Sigmund Freud

Multiple Choice

Feminist Criticism depics and questions which of the following?

• Social Classes

• Gender roles

• Psychology

• Effects of colonization

Multiple Choice

Which theory focuses on the effects of colonization

• New Historicism

• Marxist Theory

• Post-Colonial Theory

• Feminist Theory